Cerro Torre
| Cerro Torre | |
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Cerro Torre in 1987
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| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 3,128 m (10,262 ft) |
| Prominence | 1,227 m (4,026 ft) |
| Coordinates | 49°17′34″S 73°05′54″W / 49.29278°S 73.09833°WCoordinates: 49°17′34″S 73°05′54″W / 49.29278°S 73.09833°W |
| Geography | |
 Cerro Torre
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| Location | Patagonia, Argentina, Chile |
| Parent range | Andes |
| Climbing | |
| First ascent | 1974 by Daniele Chiappa, Mario Conti, Casimiro Ferrari and Pino Negri (Italy) |
| Easiest route | rock/snow/ice |
Cerro Torre is one of the mountains of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field in South America. It is located in the border between Argentina and Chile, west of Cerro Chaltén (also known as Fitz Roy). The peak is the highest in a four mountain chain: the other peaks are Torre Egger (2,685 m), Punta Herron, and Cerro Standhardt. The top of the mountain often has a mushroom of rime ice, formed by the constant strong winds, increasing the difficulty of reaching the actual summit.
Cesare Maestri claimed in 1959 that he and Toni Egger had reached the summit and that Egger had been swept to his death by an avalanche while they were descending. Maestri declared that Egger had the camera with the pictures of the summit, but this camera was never found. Inconsistencies in Maestri's account, and the lack of bolts, pitons or fixed ropes on the route, have led most mountaineers to doubt Maestri's claim. In 2005, Ermanno Salvaterra, Rolando Garibotti and Alessandro Beltrami, after many attempts by world-class alpinists, put up a confirmed route on the face that Maestri claimed to have climbed. They did not find any evidence of previous climbing on the route described by Maestri and found the route significantly different from Maestri's description. In 2015 Rolando Garibotti published evidence that the information provided by Maestri do not agree with respect to the alleged summit ascent. Instead he and Egger were on the western flank of Perfil de Indio.
Maestri went back to Cerro Torre in 1970 with Ezio Alimonta, Daniele Angeli, Claudio Baldessarri, Carlo Claus and Pietro Vidi, trying a new route on the southeast face. With the aid of a gas-powered compressor drill, Maestri equipped 350 m of rock with bolts and got to the end of the rocky part of the mountain, just below the ice mushroom. Maestri claimed that "the mushroom is not part of the mountain" and did not continue to the summit. The compressor was left, tied to the last bolts, 100 m below the top. Maestri was heavily criticised for the "unfair" methods he used to climb the mountain.
The route Maestri followed is now known as the Compressor route and was climbed to the summit in 1979 by Jim Bridwell and Steve Brewer. Most parties consider the ascent complete only if they summit the often-difficult ice-rime mushroom.
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Wikipedia